To Ignite Stars
by Rorry Lamb
Summary: The world around them burns and in the inferno there is silence. In the inferno smoke lodges in her throat, ash creates a film over her eyes, and yet she feels none of it. Not the pain, not the heat, not the panicked breathing of the man holding her to his chest. Because her soul is flickering between bodies and just before the darkness takes her the man cradling her screams.
1. Reach for the Stars

Loading dock forty-seven is packed. Marines and scientists and personnel making their way to the shuttles waiting to take them to the ISV while others are guiding large equipment and supplies to their own personalized shuttles. None of them seem to care about the man in the wheelchair attempting to navigate his way to the shuttle, but she does, and their's something familiar about his that makes her adjust her grip on her bag before sifting through the crowd toward the man.

"I'm going to go out on a limb," She says as she settles at the man's side, "and say you're one of the new drivers."

The man's entire body goes taut before relaxing and it reminds her more of a marine than a scientist. Which is weird because most of the avatar drivers have history as a scientist... In one way or another. And she's thinking about the strangeness of it when he looks up at her.

She suddenly understands why he looks so familiar.

"Suppose so," the man says, "I'm Jake Sully."

"Elena Fierro."

She doesn't tell him she's sorry for his loss. It wouldn't do anything. He's heard it all before and Elena knows that most of the people who've said it to him didn't actually mean anything by it. They didn't know Tom, they didn't know what their relationship was like. Tom Sully was a good man, a great man, kind and considerate but he'd never been particularly close to Elena.

Tom was more Norm's friend then hers and while she can acknowledge his brilliance and mourn his loss there was never really any relationship between the two.

So she keeps her mouth shut and makes her way to the shuttle.

"You a driver too?"

"Yeah, we'll be seeing a lot of each other in the next several years."

"You a scientist then?" Jake asks.

"Yeah, I got my degree in cultural and biological Anthropology." Elena tucks a wayward strand of dark hair behind her ear and slips behind Jake's wheelchair as they near the shuttle doors. "What about you?"

"Tommy was the scientist... I'm just the grunt."

"So basically because your DNA matches his Avatar the RDA wants you to take his place."

"Something like that."

She waits until he's cleared the little gap separating the shuttle from the platform before following him into the vehicle that will take them to the ISV that will carry them to Pandora. They settle toward the back where a handicap slot is waiting.

"Well, it's probably a good thing that you're coming."

Elena doesn't tell Jake that because of the bad blood between the Na'vi and the people of Hell's Gate some of the drivers have lost their avatars in the jungle... She doesn't tell him that there have been more then a few attacks from the Na'vi. Not that she blames them. She'd be angry too if she had to go through the shit they go through on a daily basis.

It's one of the reasons she joined the program.

Getting a degree in Anthropology had seemed like one of the best ways to build bridges between the Na'vi and the humans, understand one species and relate those things to another. It seems like a good idea in theory. Her uncle Max had thought it was a good idea when she'd discussed it with him at the time. Hell, he'd even helped her get through the Avatar Program.

Elena would still be sitting behind a desk if it hadn't been for Max and Dr. Augustine's insistence that she come and Elena's own determination to finish the program as soon as possible.

"Ten minutes to departure." The animated voice of the shuttle's warning system slices through the loud chatter around them.

A quick glance out the small shuttle window tells Elena that most of the people still on the platform will not be joining them on this flight. Which means they'll be taking off soon.

Oh, it shouldn't be too bad.

The program had required all of the people leaving Earth for Pandora to undergo simulations. To makes sure they could handle the stress of leaving Earth's damaged atmosphere as well as that of entering Pandora's healthy one. They're two completely different experiences. Frankly, Elena liked the Pandora simulator better as Earth's atmosphere will cause a difficult transition from the ground to the satellite littered space around the ISV.

Doesn't mean entering Pandora's atmosphere is going to be... Pleasant.

Not after more than five years in Cryo.

"Is it too late to quite?" Jake asks, tone filled with gentle laughter.

"Oh, definitely." Elena replies as she makes sure her seat-belt is secure.

Jake snorts and it's one of the sweetest things Elena has heard seeing as he probably hasn't laughed like that since Tom died.

Privately, Elena hopes the bastard that did it rots in whatever fucked up version of Hell awaits him.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please fasine your seat-belts. The shuttle will be departing in one minute."

There's a collective breath from the occupants of the shuttle, none of them wanting to be there longer then strictly necessary. No one likes the shuttles, no one likes being in one space too long, no one likes waiting. Which is what they've been doing for the past three days. Which is what their bodies will be doing for the next five plus years.

Elena settles back in the seat, fingers curling tight around the bar in front of her as opposed to the arm rests.

 _Who the fuck uses armrests anyway?_

Suddenly there's a sharp rumble and the shuttle is shooting into the air. Elena grunts, body swaying slightly from side to side, eyes clenched tight, breath coming in heavy pants. Beside her Jake swears colorfully but Elena doesn't open her eyes to check if he's ok. If she does she'll end up loosing her lunch.

Another thing no one wants.

But it's over within minutes, the shaking of the shuttle stopping almost instantly when they hit space.

Elena lets out a breath and turns to offer Jake a smile.

In the space beyond the window Elena can see old satellites and other objects from years and years ago littered in the planet's orbit. Thankfully, the shuttle drivers are used to this and have never had a problem weaving in and out of danger. Elena isn't necessarily worried about getting hit but she's sure as hell not at ease. But she's going to be fine, they all are, she just needs to stop thinking about the old junk heap of a satellite that's slowly making it's way toward them.

Instead she just has to focus on the dulled blue-grey of Earth's ocean and the muck brown of their dying land.

"Thought it would be prettier." Jake muttered.

"Might have been a few hundred years ago..." Elena trails off.

"Yeah, maybe."

They lapse into silence, the only sound between them the soft intakes of breath.

Within minutes their shuttle is pulling into the loading bay of the ISV that will transport them to Pandora.

Elena unbuckles when the shuttle stops moving, careful to keep herself from floating off by hanging onto the bars above her head. She takes Jake's bag and watches as he floats up to take hold of the bar before moving to grab hold of his wheelchair.

Then the two of them are off, exiting the shuttle and moving to the loading bay where crew members are calling out names.

"Hey Jake, I'll see you when we enter orbit, yeah?" Elena asks when she hears one of the crew members call.

Jake smiles and nods, "Yeah. See you on the flip side, Fierro."

One last smile and Elena is pulling herself over to the crew member. He checks the photo next to her name before motioning for her to follow him to the cryotube designated for her specifically. Apparently everything is alphabetized on the ISV's, makes it easier for the four crew members who will actually be awake for the next five plus years to keep an eye on everything.

"Alright, this is yours." The man says as he pulls a tube open.

Elena grips onto the side of the tube and swings herself over the lip, with no small amount of help from the lack of gravity, and the crew member helps her buckle in so she doesn't float away.

While she's stuck in the tube the man places a monitor on her which will keep track of her vitals and let the lone medic know if anything goes south during the trip. People have died on this trip, not recently, but in the first trips when the tubes were perfected enough to be considered stable. Elena doesn't want to die like that, choking to death in her sleep when no one can get to her before it's too late.

"Anything you need before you go under?"

"No, thank you."

The man nods once before pushing the tube shut

And in the seconds between wakefulness and sleep Elena thinks she hears the gentle rustle of leaves.

~X~

Someone is whispering her name.

The voice is deep and soft and unfamiliar. Whoever he is, and Elena is fairly certain it is a he, is tracing his fingers up and down the ridge of her spine. It's a pleasant feeling, one that illicit a gentle rumble not so unlike a purr from deep within her chest.

Behind her the man laughs.

A deep rolling chuckle that makes Elena smile even if she isn't sure why she does.

"It's time to wake up." The man whispers into her ear.

"I don't want to." She whispers back.

"No," the man agrees. "But you need too."

~X~

"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty."

Elena jerks awake, vision dancing and spinning and blurring.

For a split moment, one terrifying moment, Elena isn't sure where she is. There are blinking lights and the low thrum of machinery around her and the restraints keeping her in her bed are too confining. Too tight. Too heavy.

"Hey, hey, hey." The man floating above her tries to soothe. "You're safe."

"...Safe..."

"Yeah, we gotta get you on one of the Valkyries so I need you to calm down."

Elena stops straining against the straps keeping her from floating away.

Now that the haze of sleep has left her Elena can look at her situation objectively. She's safe, she's alive, she's arriving on Pandora... Well, she's technically arrived at Pandora. Ok. Ok. She's ok.

"We're here?" She finds herself asking, voice hoarse.

"Yeah," Her medic laughs. "We're here."

After the required scans the medic unstraps her and directs Elena toward the locker where her things are waiting. She doesn't see Jake but he probably hasn't been let out of his tube yet so she doesn't worry too much. No one's died in the tubes in decades. Besides, if he'd died there would have been an alert. As there haven't been an alert no one needs to worry about anything.

She grabs her bag without much thought and slides the strap across her body before kicking off the lockers and floating to the other side of the hall where a series of handles and flashing lights direct Elena to one of the many waiting Valkyries. Getting into a seat is a pain in the ass considering the lack of gravity but she manages to strap herself in and get a better drip on her bag before too many people start showing up.

Jake doesn't get on her Valkyrie. S

So when the ship shudders and separates from the ISV Elena tries not to think too much about it.

There's a sort of burning smell, like ozone, like the moments after lightning touches down in your backyard, as the Valkyrie enters Pandora's atmosphere. Elena smiles as the Valkyrie touches down on the marine at the front of the shuttle instructs them to put on their Oxygen masks. Elena does so without so much as a thought. She's been through the drills.

She knows what she needs to do.

So when it's time to go Elena grabs her bag and exits the Valkyrie alongside the other marines.

Green and blue and colors she's only seen in books meet her eyes the moment she steps off the shuttle. Colors and plants and a blue sky that isn't stained with smog. It's gorgeous. Stunningly so. And Elena can't help but smile as she rushes into the facility.


	2. Just Beyond Familiar

"Elena!" A curly haired man in a white lab coat practically yells as Elena steps into the lab where the avatar drivers have been directed.

"Max!"

Without much thought she tosses her bag to the floor next to a very expensive looking piece of equipment and moves to wrap her arms around the older man who's crossed the room to meet her halfway. Elena pulls away to smile at her father's friend, her godfather, shocked to find the beginnings of grey at Max's temples. She supposes it shouldn't be _that_ surprising. She hasn't spoken to him in five years and a lot can change in that much time.

"You've gotten so big!" Max laughs before dropping his hand to hover at his hip, "The last time I saw you you were this big. I could pick you up and swing you over my shoulder! Now look at you! All grown up!"

Elena pulls away, heat staining her cheeks, and glances away from her uncle.

She hasn't actually seen her godfather in years. Sure, they've shared correspondences but it's not like video calls are all that easy when one is living on Pandora or Earth. But it's good to see him again. So, so good. Max looks just like she remembers. Soft and kind with warm eyes and an even warmer hug. And it hurts knowing she can see him when neither of her parents can.

"Do you want to see your avatar?" Max asks, having probably sensed the sudden tension.

"Of course!"

The curly haired scientist smiles before leading her over to one of the three tanks lined against a wall. Jake and Norm are off to the side discussing the avatar that had once been Tom's. Neither of them notice her and that's ok. She's a bit too preoccupied with her own avatar to bother with either of them at the moment.

"We just have to run some tests," Max is saying, "make sure everything's good. You should be able to take her out tomorrow though."

Elena nods absently before reaching out to press the very tips of her fingers against the glass.

Inside the Amnio Tank her avatar twitches, the long braid protecting the Queue slides through the thick amniotic liquid that keeps the avatars safe during the trip to Pandora. She's pretty, Elena supposes. Cat-like in her features with long black hair pulled into a braid and a dark curtain of eyelashes. This body is willowy, lithe, common for a Na'vi. But despite the obviously Na'vi features there's an obvious resemblance between Elena's human body and her surrogate body.

She's thankful for it.

Beside her Max is fiddling with the monitor on the side of the tank, tapping this button or that, glancing over the brightly lit screen that shows the avatar's vitals.

"She's gorgeous." Elena breathes, fingers reaching out to glide over glass of the tank.

"Gets it from your mamma." Max laughs.

"Does everything look good?" Elena asks instead of replying to Max's comment.

"Her vitals are good, everything looks like it's developed well... Give us a few hours and we'll be able to tell if anything happened on the way here that might cause issues."

Elena hums thoughtfully and tucks a wayward strand of hair behind her ear as she leans over to check the vitals and stats splayed across the computer screen. Everything looks pretty normal. Heart rate looks good, brain activity looks fucking fantastic, and every once in awhile the avatar twitches in the amniotic fluid which is always a good sign.

While Max handles the avatars Elena excuses herself to the video monitors on the far side of the room and settles herself into a chair. She logs into the computer before moving to turn on the recorder off to the side of the screen.

It's critical, especially for her, that she records everything she experiences here while on Pandora. She's gotten special permission from Grace to have a secondary copy of all her videos sent over to her own personal data pads so that she can work on her research in her off time. Thank God for small miracles, she doubts she would have gotten that kind of permission if the RDA hadn't open fired on a school full of Na'vi children.

 _Fucking assholes_ , Elena thinks as she watches her face pop up on the screen in front of her.

Getting through her first log is easy. She talks about how her body is adjusting to the Pandoran atmosphere and how she feels like she could eat an elephant and not feel back because cryo's a bitch, not that she says it in those exact words. By the time she's done with the log she's summed up the last two years of her schooling and training and mentioned the trip from Earth to Pandora.

It's a pretty easy Log to complete and Elena logs out of the system soon after to find Jake hovering in the space to her left, Norm right behind him.

"Hm?"

"It's time to meet Doctor Augustine." Norm breathes, and the reverence in his voice would be hilarious if Elena didn't totally agree with it.

"Grace? Oh my god, Jake, you're going to love Grace." Elena says as she rises from her chair, careful to sling her bag over her shoulder. "She's literally a queen."

"Is that right?"

"Grace Augustine," Norm cuts in, "is a legend. She's the head of the Avatar program, and wrote the book- I mean literally wrote the book- on Pandoran botany."

Max twists to look at them over his shoulder and says, "That's because she likes plants more then she likes people."

Jake cuts Elena a look and the girl can only shrug a shoulder in response. She loves Norm, she does, but he takes some getting used too. Besides, Jake's not a science guy... He probably couldn't care less about botany or Grace Augustine's badassery. He'll learn soon enough.

Together the four of them step into the link room where one of the links pops open to reveal an exhausted looking red head with fiercely intelligent eyes.

"Who's got my goddamn cigarette?" Grace barks, sending three lab techs scrambling to find the cancer stick in question.

The techie that brings her the already lit cigarette doesn't stick around long. Elena doesn't blame her. Grace is lovely but abso-fucking-lutely terrifying, mostly because she takes zero shit from anyone and isn't afraid to bury you in poorly veiled disgust should you say something stupid in her presence. Elena loves it.

"And here she is, Cinderella back from the ball. Grace, I'd like you too meet Norm Spellman and Ja-"

Grace cuts him off with a sharp, "Norm. I hear good things about you. How's your Na'vi?"

The conversation that takes place between Norm and Grace is full of formality and barely concealed glee. Elena finds herself smiling into her hand as they talk. But then Grace's eyes are on her and she seems so fucking happy to see Elena that the younger girl can't help but beam at the older woman.

"Hey kiddo, you're looking good."

"Thanks Grace. How've you been?"

Before the woman can respond Max is stepping in to direct the good Doctor's attention over to Jake.

"Uh, Grace, this is Jake Su-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know who you are and I don't need _you_. I need your brother," Grace whips around to stare at Max. "You know, the PhD who trained three years for this mission?"

"He's dead, I know it's a big inconvenience to everyone." Jake snaps, eyes harder then Elena's ever seen them.

Grace has the decency to look ashamed for a hot minute before crossing her arms and asking, "How much lab training have you had? Ever run a gas chromatograph?"

"No."

Grace's mouth thins. "Any lab work at all?"

"High school chemistry," Jake says then he smiles, "but I ditched."

In all of two seconds Grace is wheeling on Max, hands clenching at her sides. "You see?" She asks, voice too sharp, " _You see_. They're pissing on us without even the courtesy of calling it rain. I'm going to Selfridge."

Max tries to stop her, he does, but Grace is out the door before he can finish his sentence and the four of them are left to stand in an awkward semicircle as they try to decide what to do next. Elena needs a shower. Like, that's nonnegotiable at this point. So when Max turns and tells them to be in the link room at oh eight hundred the next morning Elena takes it as the dismissal it is and promptly leaves.

She pulls her personal data pad out of her beg and logs into the system to pull up her information. Thankfully, her room is next to Jake and Norm's and so she sticks with them as they wonder aimlessly down the halls of the facility that'll be their home for the next five years, or longer if Elena can swing it.

Once they've found their rooms Elena scans her security card across the lock and pushes the door open. She holds it open as she twists to look at Norm and Jake.

"See you guys in the morning." Elena says.

"You coming to dinner?" Norm asks, already tossing his bag into his room.

"Nah, don't think I'd be able to keep anything down right now."

Worry creases Norm's face but he doesn't mention it. Elena doesn't let him. She casts the two men a bright smile before slipping into the privacy offered by her new room and flips on the light to find a bed, a dresser, a nightstand, and a door leading to a closet.

 _Looks like the bathrooms are communal_ , Elena thinks irritably as she tosses her duffel onto the foot of her bed.

She sorts out her things, careful with some of her more valuable items, and tucks them away into various drawers in the dresser or into the little nook built into the nightstand. A couple of her dressier shirts and pants get hung up so that they won't wrinkle anymore then they already have. It's honestly a waste of her time to do this, she'll rarely wear any of the clothes she brought with her. Not when she'll be spending a good portion of her days in an Avatar.

Still, she unpacks her things and tosses her duffel back into the recesses of her closer before fishing a pair of underwear, some pajamas, and her toiletries out of the dresser. The toiletries aren't her own. They're standard and given to each of the men and women living in the facility. Shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and a shaving kit.

Elena grabs the towel hanging off of the bar on her closet door and her security card before stepping out her room.

~X~

The bathroom is nice. Toilets are lined up off to one side and the showers on the other, both sides of the room are separated by a long wall lined with mirrors and sinks on both sides. Elena runs a hand through her hair as she makes her way over to the showers and claims a stall farthest from the door.

She strips quickly and tosses the dirty clothes over the stall door.

Technically, Elena probably doesn't actually need a shower. It's not like she's been sweating and collecting dust in her pod over the past five years. So really it's more of a psychological thing then a physical need to bathe. Elena cranks the dial on the shower head and moans as hot water rushes our of the overhead faucet to beat against her chest and shoulders.

Elena dips her head under the spray of water, brushing back her hair so that it stays out of her face.

Maybe she stands under the water a bit longer then she should, it doesn't take her thirty minutes to shower after all, but it's not like anyone's going to reprimand her for it. Not when nearly all of the other shower stalls are open, not when water isn't practically non-existent here. Elena sighs as she reaches for the shampoo bottle, then the conditioner, then the soap.

By the time she's done bathing Elena smells like military grade soap rather then the sandalwood and oranges she's so used to smelling like.

But it doesn't matter. Elena tells herself it doesn't matter. Because she's on Pandora, she's doing what she's always wanted to do, her parents would be so proud of her. So what if she smells like someone sprayed her down with a sterilizing agent, so what if she feels like she could be sick all over the tile, so what if she wishes Tom could have been here.

It doesn't matter.

And all Elena thinks as she finishes up and changes into her clothes is, _Bullshit_.

~X~

Elena drops onto her bed, struggling to pull the blanket up over her shoulders, and checks to make sure she set her alarm for oh six hundred. It wouldn't be professional to be late on your first real day of work, not if you want to get into your avatar. Elena smiles at the thought and pulls the blanket tighter around her body.

Tomorrow, she'll be able to take her avatar out tomorrow.

Max and Grace had promised her over a video chat sometime before she'd left Earth that they'd have clothes and such lines up and ready to go in the cabin the avatars are typically kept in. They also promised to introduce her to some of the other drivers. Which is awesome because Elena would love to pick their brains, for research purposes of course.

Elena sighs, bunches her pillow up, and closes her eyes.

It takes a few moments for sleep to claim her but when it does Elena dreams of an Ikran and a sky of powder blue and a man's laughter slicing through the air around her like a blade.


	3. Cosmic Noise

The next morning Elena dresses in a plain tank top and a pair of tactical pants before pulling a pair of plain black boots onto her feet. The outfit is nondescript, most of the men and women here will be wearing something like this. Elene ties her hair out of her face, glancing at the alarm clock on the nightstand, and grabs her secruity card off of the dresser before making her way out into the hall where she finds Norm and Jake waiting.

"You could have gone ahead." Elena says, adjusting the strap of her bra so that it lays properly.

"We thought it would be nice," Norm offers.

Elena glances at Jake who shrugs.

"Are you nervous?" Elena laughs and Norm sputters.

"Of course not! I just think it would be nice if we all went to meet with Doctor Augustine."

"You can call her Grace, you know." Elena states as she turns and begins making her way down the hall.

"Maybe _you_ can call her Grace," Jake laughs. "I think the rest of us'll stick to Augustine."

Elena turns to flip the ex-marine the bird and says, "She's not that bad."

From somewhere to her left Norm scoffs but says nothing as he tosses Elena a protein bar. They don't have time to hit the cafeteria for breakfast but Norm's always come prepared and it's likely he snagged a few things after going to dinner the night before. Elena peels off the plastic covering and bites into the bar, grimacing at the dusty-wood taste of it.

No one ever said protein bars were good.

She tosses the wrapper in a rubbish bin they pass on the way to the Link room.

When they reach the link room Max is waiting for them out in the hall, looking stern and about as imposing as a man like Max can look. Elena smiles at him as she moves past and into the room with the others.

Elena's quick to claim the pod nearest the door and the techie waiting next to it smiles as he helps her get settled, when Max steps in to take his place Elena doesn't question it. Instead she focuses on the fluid gel pack lining the inside of the unit and how warm it is while Max adjusts the biometric sensors and lowers the upper clamshell.

"Feel good?"

"Yeah, feels great."

Max nods slowly before offering a kind smile, "Just let your mind go blank. You should wake up in the exam room."

Then Max is pulling the hood of the unit down and Elena's encased in darkness.

She settles into the gel, focuses on her breathing, it's easy enough to clear her mind. In her classes preparing her for this trip Elena's instructors had always stressed the importance of meditation and focus. They'd even carve out Friday afternoons for help the students in the Avatar program prepare for it.

All too soon Elena's opening her eyes to find two med techs hovering over her, the mask of their exopacks reflecting Elena's face.

"Elena? Can you hear me?" The woman asks.

"Yeah, I can hear you."

"Good! Want to try sitting up?"

Elena does so, carefully swinging her legs over the side of the gurney and pushing her upper body up so that she's sitting perfectly straight before the two med techs. The woman smiles at her and nods enthusiastically.

"Wonderful, can you try touching the tip of your fingers together?" The woman raises a gloved hand to show what she means and Elena nods as she follows along.

it's procedure. The soon it's over with the better.

Unfortunately, Jake Sully didn't seem to get that message.

One minute everything's going good and the next Jake's avatar is bolting for the door, ass exposed through his hospital gown. Elena snorts as she carefully rises from the gurney and sidesteps the two techs as she makes her way to the door, Norm close behind.

Elena pushes out into the avatar compound, already catching sight of Jake as he sprints across the ground. With a sigh Elena trots after him. She's not going to ruin his moment by telling him to stop being an idiot, obviously his avatar is fine. Besides, the poor man hasn't been able to walk in god knows how long. Elena's sure that this is the closest thing he'll ever get to walking again.

She's not going to take that from him.

"Hey Marine!" She hears Grace's voice over the sound of med techs and Norm trying to persuade Jake to come back inside to run tests.

Slowing to a walk Elena pulls both arms over her head and stretches. She's not worried about Jake, not with Grace around to make sure he doesn't accidentally get himself killed. Without much thought Elena makes her way over to where Norm is standing, flexing and smiling as he poses for the men and women around him.

When the other driver sees her he smiles wide and proclaims, "I am a living god!"

"You're a fucking idiot." Elena laughs, arms crossing over her stomach.

Norm just smiles.

Elena stares at him for a long moment before turning on her heel and making her way over to where Grace is standing with Jake. Grace smiles at her, eyes bright and golden, and it strikes Elena that she's never actually seen the woman smile like this. Teeth on display, eyes wide. She looks happy, happier then she's ever looked in a human body.

Awkwardly, Elena shifts back onto her heels, careful to keep herself perfectly balanced in the soil beneath her feet.

She jumps when Grace reaches out to tug on a braid that's come loose from the longer, thicker braid protecting Elena's queue. She'll need to fix it tonight before bed. It wouldn't do to leave the precious neural strands unprotected.

"Come on, let's get you some clothes." Grace says, motioning for the three avatar drivers to follow her.

And follow they do, across the avatar compound to a longhouse near where the basketball court lays between the Hell's Gate facility and the rest of the avatar compound. When they enter the longhouse Grace makes her way over to a large door and pulls it open to reveal a closet lined with clothes and shoes. Without much thought Grace begins tossing clothes at them.

Elena ends up with a pair of shorts and a deep green t-shirt that she promptly replaces her hospital gown with. The fabric is scratchy and rough against her skin, irritating, Elena decides that she doesn't like it but thinks that it's better then running around naked. Not that there's anything wrong with running around naked, Elena just doesn't think most of the marines in this place, or Max, would think it amusing if Elena pranced around in her birthday suit.

Snorting loudly at the thought Elena rolls the bottom part of her shirt up so that it isn't lying over the belt-loops and pockets of her tactical shorts.

"It's so itchy." She bemoans, already moving to rub at the skin of her shoulders.

"You get used to it." Grace laughs but Elena suspects that, no, she will not in fact get used to it.

If anything, Elena's going to get more and more annoyed with it.

The only good thing coming from the fact that she has to wear clothes is that she doesn't have to wear a bra. There's not straps digging into her shoulders, no band pressing into her ribs, and most importantly her tits aren't trying to pop out.

 _Thank God for small miracles_ , Elena thinks as she reaches up to begin fixing the braid protecting her queue.

Beside her Norm's tail is flick, flick, flicking back and forth as he attempts to shove his foot into one of the boots he'd grabbed without having to sit down. Norm, for all of his brains and sweetness, had never been the most coordinated person but he manages to not fall on his face and Elena wonders how much of that is due to the tail currently slicing through the air behind him.

They're meant to help the Na'vi balance, after all, so maybe Norm's unfortunate two left feet won't be such a hindrance from now on.

"Norm, why don't you show Jake around," Grace suggests as she moves to lace her arm through Elena's, "I'm gonna take Fierro and introduce her to some of our senior drivers."

"Sure thing, Doctor Augustine."

Grace snorts at the man before guiding Elena out of the longhouse.

There are two male drivers running the obstacle course set up to help keep the avatar's in shape as they can't exactly go exercise in the jungle without running the risk of getting killed by the Na'vi or the more aggressive predators waiting there, Elena spots a couple playing basketball near the doors leading into the facility, and there's a small group of three lingering near a clear patch of land.

The woman beside her leads her not to the obstacle course or the basketball court but to the group of three sitting in the grass.

"Guys, this is Elena Fierro, I told you about her the other day."

One of the drivers smiles, a big toothy grin that would look predatory if not for the gentleness of her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah! The anthropologist!" The girl says, nodding enthusiastically as she offers a hand, "My name's Donna Clapper, I used to teach at Doctor Augustine's school."

"A pleasure."

"This," The girl points back to the other two drivers, both male. "Is Will Teek and Spencer Mills."

"I expect you all to make Elena and the other new drivers feel welcome," Grace asserts, eyes on Will specifically, "and with that in mind I've got shit to do."

After Grace has left it's Spencer that pats the ground beside him, offering the newest girl a seat among them. Once Elena's settled in the grass, actual grass, the other avatar drivers seem to relax a bit.

"So, how long have you been here?" Elena asks, because it's a good enough conversation starter.

"This'll be the end of my first mission," Will admits. "I probably won't be back."

"Oh shut the fuck up, you will too," Spencer reaches out to kick Will in the thigh before turning his attention back to Elena. "This is my second mission but Donna's been here longer then nearly everyone in the program-" "Except Doctor Augustine." "-Right, except Grace."

Elena nods slowly, looking between each of the three drivers sitting around her.

"That's pretty amazing, you said you worked with the school?"

"Uh, yeah, I mean I worked there a few months after I got here before a whole bunch'a shit hit a whole bunch's fans."

The shooting, Donna's talking about the shooting.

Elena read about it, everyone in the Avatar program was required too. The information they'd gotten had suggested that a lot of the issues that lead up to the mass shooting had been the fault of the Na'vi and not the RDA who'd gone out under Quaritch's orders to slaughter children. Elena had talked to Max about it, both shocked that the RDA would do it and not all that surprised at the same time.

Human beings are greedy bastards after all.

"Yeah, I heard about that... I'm sorry."

Donna nods but doesn't say anything more about the shooting, instead she smiles and flips a series of braids over her shoulder and says, "So, Fierro, heard you got yourself a degree in cultural anthropology. Hoping to get in with the Natives?"

"I'd definitely prefer to study with them as opposed to not but I'm also fairly interested in the development of the species on Pandora in comparison to the species that developed on Earth."

"That's really pretty amazing," Donna says, curling her arms around her legs, "You'll get to do a lot of research if you continue to work with Doctor Augustine."

"Yeah, I'm really looking forward the the opportunity." Elena says.

No one questions that, it's an honor to work with Grace after all, and soon the avatar driver around her all fall into a series of conversational topics ranging from sports to the quality of last night's meal. They offer to let Elena sit with them at dinner and at breakfast if she wants, and it's with a soft smile that Elena tells them she has plans to sit with Jake and Norm. They don't say much about that and the group lapses into menial, polite small talk until Jake trots over to collect Elena for something he likes to call team bonding.

~X~

"Come on, try it." Elena urges, holding out a spoonful of something green and slimy.

Jake bats her hand away, causing the goop to drop onto the table between them. He scowls.

"I don't eat green foods."

"No, you just eat rations and protein bars," Elena remarks blandly. "No wonder you're all muscle."

Jake's smile is a wicked, dirty thing. "I've never heard a complaint about me being all muscle."

"Yeah? Well, I'm not surprised. Eat your greens, tarado."

"Did you just call me a dumbass?" Jake looks mildly offended.

"I don't know, did I?"

"There should be a rule," Jake says to Norm, causing the other driver to blink owlishly at them.

"What rule?"

"That your bitchy friends can't swear at you in foreign languages."

Elena swallows the mouthful of vegetables in her mouth before saying, "It wouldn't stick."

"And why not?"

"Because I'd still swear at you."

Jake shakes his head, smiling broadly, and stabs at his spinach with a scowl.

"Where did they get this shit?" Jake demands.

This time it's Norm that says, "The science department has a green house. They grow smaller vegetables and fruits so that we don't have to live off of rations all the damn time."

"And the meat?"

Elena shrugs and explains, "We get rations with the shuttles."

The face Jake pulls would be amusing if it weren't the same one Elena pulled when Max had explained the rationing at Hell's Gate to her.

Apparently, most of the fruit here is safe for human consumption with the exception of a few more exotic picks and so there's usually no shortage of fruits, and when combined with the vegetables from the greenhouses everyone eats pretty well. Unfortunately, the game here isn't exactly easy catching. The marines aren't exactly stealthy in their suits and about eight-three percent of the game on Pandora wouldn't stick around long after hearing them.

It's unfortunate.

Grace claims that Yerik isn't all that bad.

"That's messed up." Jake mutters.

"Eh, we get protein bars instead." Elan shoves Jake's plate closer to him. "Eat up marine, we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow."

Jake frowns at her. "What are we doing?"

"Running drills, getting used to our avatars, the works." Elena explains before rising and gathering her tray.

She makes her way to the bin, dumping the remaining food in the trash before pushing her tray into the slot meant for it. The tray disappears with a mechanical whirl and gush of hot air and Elena turns away from what is essentially a washing machine to make her way back to the table where Jake and Norm are arguing over something Elena can't make out.

A sigh slips past her lips and Elena lowers herself into her previously abandoned seat to wait out Jake and Norm's argument.

~X~

Later, Elena enters her room after a piping hot shower and a trip to the lab to talk to Max about field work to find a pile of clothes at the foot of her bed. Too big to be made for her but not too big to fit her avatar. Elena just gathers the pile, muttering about asshole marines putting stuff for her avatar in her room instead of with her actual avatar.

She tosses the clothes into her closet and drops onto the bed, face buried in her pillow.

Within minutes she's asleep and dreaming.

~X~

In her dreams little wisps of white light dance across blue skin, they cling to her fingers and her hair, brush against her forehead. And Elena lets them, basking in the light and the warmth they offer as she stands in the middle of a seemingly never ending oblivion.

 _Elena_ , a voice in the darkness, _Elena come home_.

Distantly, the young woman thinks it's her mother. The mother she lost, the mother that used to kiss her cheeks and bake her cookies for her birthday, but the voice is too indistinct to be her mother's voice. Elena would never, ever forget her mother's voice. The soft roll of her tongue whenever she spoke, the sharp bite of the first two syllables of Elena's name but the softness of the last.

This is not her mother's voice.

It is a mother's voice.

Calm and gentle and soothing in the darkness.

 _Elena_ , the voice seems to follow the little pinpricks of white light, _it's time to come home_.

~X~

Waking with a startled gasp, Elena rolls over and jolts up to sit in the middle of her bed. The light from the alarm clock on her nightstand casts an eerie green hue across the room and Elena moves to turn on the overhead light just to get rid of it.

It's three in the morning.

Elena should be fucking sleeping.

With a groan the woman flops back across her bed to stare up at the ceiling.

Sleep avoids her for the rest of the morning and when Norm knocks on her door to make sure she's awake Elena makes a point not to snap at the man because it's not his fault Elena's not sleeping well. It's just stress, her body getting it's shit together after being in cryosleep for so long. Yeah, that sounds logical. Jake offers a cup of coffee and Elena takes it with a grumbled word of thanks before falling into step behind them as the two begin making their way to the link room.


	4. Run Boy, Run

Their first field trip comes nearly three days later and Elena watches as Grace flies down the hall in a near panic. No, not panic. It's obvious she's nervous about this trip but it's more an excited kind of nervous? She doesn't seem scared. That's the good thing at least.

Elena casts Jake and Norm a glance, doesn't mention how Jake had spent a good portion of the morning dealing with the Colonel.

"Start calibrating," the auburn haired scientist says to Max, "we're on the flight line in ten minutes."

Max nods, takes her clipboard, and races ahead to the link room.

None of them say anything until they've entered the corridor connecting the rest of Hell's Gate to the Link Room, then Grace turns to look at Jake over her shoulder and Elena knows it's not going to be an altogether friendly conversation between coworkers.

"What did Attila want?" Grace asks, the tension in her voice obvious.

Jake picks up on it quickly enough. "Just marines comparin' tattoos."

"Yeah? Well, listen to me, _marine_ ," Grace whips around to face Jake fully, "you're driving an avatar now. That means you're in _my_ world. Got it?"

"Got it."

Grace scowls as she moves to step into the link room, the trio of avatar drivers following behind.

Elena doesn't even bother trying to get into Jake and Grace's conversation. She already knows everything she needs too. Max had told her all about the shooting at Grace's school, all about how Quaritch had ordered the attack. She doesn't need to weigh in her opinion right now, she'll talk to Jake about it later.

"That son of a bitch has screwed up this program enough. All this," Grace throws her arm around, "exists so we can go out there and build a bridge of trust to these people, who can teach us so much. But thanks to Quaritch and his thugs the Na'vi won't even talk to us anymore."

Jake raises an eyebrow at her, "Then how's this supposed to work?"

"We have new faces. Elena and Norm are fluent, they've studied the culture. They're non-threatening. The clans we know best- the Omaticaya clan- may give them a chance... Maybe the two of you can get them back to the table before things go tits-up for good."

Elena seriously doubts that but she nods anyway.

"This is failing as a pep-talk." Norm remarks.

"So how do we contact them?" Jake asks.

"We don't. They contact us. If they see us taking our samples and treating the forest with respect, not trampling everything in sight, they might reach out to us."

"If our so called protection doesn't shoot them first." Elena mutters as she makes her way to her link unit where a lab tech is waiting.

Elena lowers herself into the unit, adjusts a bit to get comfortable, and nods to the tech who then pulls down the clam shell and finally the lid of the unit. For a moment there's nothing but darkness, blankness, and then Elena is aware of laughter and playful taunting. She opens her eyes, stretches, and then rolls out of bed to change into new clothes and a pair of boots.

Eventually the others appear beside her, slipping into their gear and shoes, and together they wait for Grace who scowls at Jake but leads them to the hangar where their pilot Trudy should be waiting for them.

Norm chatters about finally getting to go out and explore and how he's so excited to be working with all of them. It's cute for the first three minutes but after that Elena directs the overzealous driver's attention to Jake, smiling impishly when the marine shoots her a glare.

it's not her problem, he can totally deal with Norm for a while.

When they reach the Samson Elena smiles at the pretty brunette who'll be carting them around before climbing in. She takes a seat near the door, strapping herself in and watching as Grace and the others follow suit. Elena ignores the marine with the gun who's followed Trudy into the Samson. It would be best not to pick fights right now.

Trudy asks if they're all set once she's settled into the pilot's seat, hardly waiting for Grace to give her the go ahead before turning the Samson on and guiding it out of the hangar. It's a weird experience. Elena can practically feel every whirl and grind of the machinery as the aircraft lifts up into the air and takes off in the direction of the rain forest where they'll be taking their samples.

She grits her teeth as Wainfleet, Trudy's gunner, scans the air for anything that might threaten their Samson.

 _We wouldn't have these issues_ , she thinks acidly, _if you weren't such a giant prick_.

"Sturmbeest heard, one o'clock." Trudy's voice carries through the samson and Elena watches as Norm perks up, leaning over to point at the heard charging through the river they're flying over.

"Looks like a bull, six cows, and some juveniles." Grace remarks.

"The bull has the red on the dorsal armor?" Norm asks which earns him an approving nod from Grace.

Time passes.

They startle a group tetrapterons, the purple winged creatures taking off into the air when startled by the Samson, skimming the water over their own reflection. They look lovely, so vibrant against the still blue mirror beneath them. Soon after the tetrapterons fade into the distance Trudy Chacon banks hard and the Samson tilts causing Elena to giggle stupidly when she sees Norm's face across the way.

She's never actually been on a Samson before but her field training for the program had had enough simulators that the trainees had been able to at least get an idea of what would be expected of them.

"Yo Chacon!" Wainfleet crows, "Get some!"

Elena resists the urge to roll her eyes at the gunman. It's hard.

Wainfleet is the type of man to join the marines for the guts and glory of it as opposed to actually helping people. He's a cocky asshole that tries to think with two heads, unfortunately one always wins out over the other.

Thankfully Trudy guides the Samson to land in a grassy meadow where Jake and Waifleet hop out of the samson to secure the LZ, guns cocked and at the ready. Elena hops out behind them and stretches out while Grace moves to motion for Trudy to kill the turbines.

"You excited?" Norm asks as he slides up to stand beside Elena.

"Of course!" It comes out more affronted then Elena means it to but Norm smiles kindly all the same before moving to pull some bags out of the samson.

He makes it back and hands Elena her bag just as Grace says to Wainfleet, "Stay with the ship. One idiot with a gun is enough."

"Whatever you say, Doc." The marine intones, nodding mockingly as he moves back toward the ship.

And so, with Wainfleet taken care of and Trudy waiting patiently in the ship, the drivers begin the trek into the jungle. They walk in a small group with Grace taking up the front and Jake taking up the rear where Elena keeps him company by keeping close and offering the occasional soft comment about the plants and wildlife they see as they come across it.

Jake seems fascinated.

Elena's kind of sad.

Because it should have been Tom making this trip with her, and while she's glad to have met Jake and interact with him it's still sad to not have been able to experience this with the man she went through school with.

Eventually Jake steps past Elena, then Norn, and finally Grace to stalk through the forest ahead of them. He white-knuckles his rifle, jumping at shadows, and jerking around to follow harmless animals with his eyes.

"Relax marine," Grace commands as she pushes ahead of him, "you're making me nervous."

No one really says much after that. They just follow Grace as she leads them further and further into the trees. And when the ruins of a relatively large cabin like structure comes into view Elena grows sad.

It's the school. Grace's school. The forest is trying to reclaim it, vines and shrubbery growing up in an attempt to swallow the old building whole. But it's not quite able to and Elena can just make out the bullet holes that are peppering the side of the building.

"How will they know we're here?" she hears Norm ask, which pulls her attention away from the old school.

"I'm sure they're watching us right now."

 _Of course they are_ , Elena thinks as she glances at the trees.

As useless as the gesture is it gives her something better to do then sit and stew in the growing anger that's pooling in her chest. But it only works so well considering that Elena has to follow Grace and the others into the school to get some supplies.

"The kids were so bright, so eager to learn... They picked up English faster then I could teach it to them." Grace says, voice sad.

Elena watches as Jake explores the room while Norm and Grace grab equipment out of storage boxes. When he notices the bullet holes Elena walks up to him and levels him with a look. Elena eventually steps away to help Norm pull equipment out of boxes and load them into their bags so that they can leave the school as soon as possible while Grace pulls a book off of the floor. It's old. The blue corner of the book fraying a bit.

Elena never read _The Lorax_ as a child but there are many such books on a bookshelf in the school.

"The stingbats knock them off," Grace explains as she puts the book away. "I guess I always hope somebody will come back and read them."

"Why don't they?" Norm asks.

"The Na'vi learned as much about us as they needed to know."

"What happened here?" Jake wonders, eyes wide and curious.

Grace's anger is like a wild thing. Snapping and snarling and chomping down at anything it can get in it's jaw.

"Are you going to help with this gear? We've got a lot of work to do." She snaps before storming off.

Once she's gone and Elena has helped Norm pack stuff away she turns to Jake.

"It was Quaritch, you know, that ordered the shooting." Elena says quietly so as not to be overheard.

"What?"

"Quaritch, he ordered the shooting on kids, Jake. Children. Some of them might have been old enough to fight, maybe, but none of them were soldiers. Quaritch knew that and he ordered the shooting to make a statement."

"Why are you telling me this?" Jake asks, seemingly put off.

"Because I know that you met with him and I'm sure he gave you some bullshit spiel about the Na'vi being savages that attack us for no reason." Elena reaches out to brush her fingers over a bullet hole in the wall, "But if you think about it, this is as good a reason as any."

With her piece said Elena hefts up her bag and follows Grace out of the school.

~X~

They spend the next hour or so hiking through the trees. They stay in a small cluster so as not to get lost as they follow Grace to various trees and plant life. Elena stays at the back of the pack, a pencil in one hand and her sketch book in the other, perfectly content to let Norm guide her through the forest with a gentle hand on her shoulder.

And eventually they stop at a large tree where Grace kneels down to brush soil away from the roots so that she and Norm can take a look at them while Elena goes about sketching a patch of Heliocordians that's growing not too far from the group.

"See, right here where the roots of the two trees interact." She hears Grace say but she doesn't look up.

Elena only glances away from her drawing when Jake walks passed her and reaches out to touch one of the plants.

It gets sucked into the ground with a soft shtoonk and makes Jake jump away in surprise. It only takes a moment for the other driver to recover from his shock because soon he's reaching out to brush his fingers against another, and another, and another after that. Like a child popping balloons at a party. Elena watches with a fond smile while carefully putting her supplies back into their protective bag.

After a few more of the Heliocordians disappear into their tubes the others in the cluster follow. Disappearing with a series of muffled _shtoonk, shtoonk, shtoonk'_ s. And it's only when the plants have all disappeared that Elena gets nervous. Because right there, staring at them from across the way, is a big ass Hammerhead Titanothere, or as the Na'vi call them - angtsik.

Big, baleful eyes glides over to look at Jake, who raises his rifle to level it at the creature.

Elena moves before she can stop herself, darting forward to curl her fingers around the rifle to shove it down toward the ground. Jake shakes her off as he shoots her a look. Thankfully Grace has noticed them and has stepped up to stay out of the way but catch Jake's attention.

"Don't shoot," Grace commands, fingers pressed against her throat mike, "you'll piss it off."

Across from them the Titanothere bellows and lowers its head.

"It's already pissed off!" Jake calls back, eyes wide and wild.

"Jake, that armor's too thick. Trust me." Grace urges.

Elena reaches out one more time to put her hand over Jake's.

"Just drop it." She breathes, eyes never leaving the agitated animal across from them. "Please just drop it."

Jake's eyes dart between them and he shifts back but never once does he drop the rifle. This only makes the Titanothere bellow again as it paws at the ground, a clear threat display. A warning.

"It's a territorial threat display. Do not run or he'll charge!" Grace commands.

"What do I do?" Jake asks.

"Hold your ground!" Grace practically snarls at the man.

The Titanothere slices it's head to the side, causing the unfortunate saplings in its way to splinter and crash. Then it bellows, lowers its head, and charges. When it's only a few feet from them Jake drops his gun, throws his hands up in the air, and roars at the Titanothere at the top of his lungs. It works, sort of, it makes the titanothere stop and step back at least.

But when it turns tail to run back to the herd that had been grazing a bit further back Elena's stomach clenches violently.

Something is wrong.

"Oh yeah! Who's bad! That's right!" Jake hoots. "That's what I'm talking about bitch!"

The bull in the herd whips around to stomp at them and toss his head. He takes a few steps forward, threatening in a way the juvenile isn't. Elena shifts back in preparation to roll out of the way should the bull charge, because there's no way that thing is going to stop in time to not trample her if she stands her ground.

She never gets the chance.

There's a strange sort of low grumble from the bull's chest just before he spins around a bolts, the rest of the herd close behind.

Elena's stomach _drops_ and she turns around just in time to see a fucking Thanator slide out of the shadows and underbrush to slink through the sunlight. Behind her Jake is yelling his triumph, hooting and hawing and trash talking the Titanothere. Elena can't bring herself to say anything.

Fear has locked her limbs up and clogged her throat.

She's never been this close to a Thanator before. This situation is going tits up fast. Elena doesn't even have a weapon to use should the giant feline lunge at her. Only her pack, which won't do much good for anything other then wildly swinging and possibly distracting the Thanator long enough for Elena to run.

Big yellow eyes lock onto Elena's for a brief second. Just long enough for Elena to feel something shift in the air between them before the Thanator leaps into the air, flies over their heads, and lands on the other side of Jake, effectively cutting off his trash talk.

"What about this one?" the gun is brought up in a quick scramble. "Run? Don't run? What?"

"Run, definitely run!" Grace sound frantic.

Then there are fingers shoving her around and forward. Forcing her to sprint just in front of Jake as the Thanator snarls and chases after them. Jake guides them to a set of trees and shoves Elena down under the roots before following behind. He makes sure to put himself between the Thanator trying to get to them and Elena even as he pushes them back toward a makeshift exit.

 _Crack!_

The rifle is fired point blank but it seems to do very little to deter the Thanator, who merely bites down onto the metal and rips it from Jake's hands. Then it's got Jake and pulls him from the cover of the roots.

"Jake!" Elena cries as she scrambles out from the roots.

Later she'll curse herself and realize just how stupid she'd been but right now Jake is being shook like a rag doll caught in the hands of an overzealous child. It's terrifying for a number of reasons but Elena notices that he's not bleeding, that the Thanator's fangs are caught in Jake's pack.

"Your pack!" She yells! "Unhook your pack!"

Jake glances at her, yellow eyes wide, and scrambles to do as she says. He grunts when he hits the ground and Elena darts across the ground to his side while the feline near them chomps down on the pack. When it realizes there's nothing edible in its mouth the Thanator turns its attention back to them but by then it's too late. Jake and Elena are up and running.

They sprint, the trees passing in a blur of vibrant colors, dodging between trees as the Thanator snaps at their backs.

Elena's breaths leave her in violence pants but she refuses to fall behind Jake for obvious reasons but Jake is used to this, has had training for this, and Elena has not. The marine must have similar thoughts because he reaches out to curl his fingers around her wrist to pull her along. It's kind of nice to know he won't ditch her to be mauled and eaten by an angry cat.

"Legs straight, arms crossed like an X over your chest!" Jake yells over the distant rumble of... Oh.

 _Oh_.

"Jake!" She's not sure if it's a plea or an agreement but Elena doesn't stop running.

And when she's suddenly airborne, arms flailing but shifting to do as Jake told her to, Elena is only distantly aware of the fact that she's a complete moron.

Then there's water is swallowing her whole.


	5. This World was not Made for You

Rough currents pull her down stream, tossing her about until she's so disoriented that she can't figure out which way to go in order to break through the water. Elena flounders as she tries to straighten herself out; even if she ends up hitting the riverbed at least she'd know which way to go from there, right? Lungs burning Elena kicks and pulls herself through the water with cupped hands, desperate to find her way out of the murky blue waters of the river before her body forces her to take in the lungful of air that her body so desperately needs. There are dark spots popping up in her vision, her legs feel heavy, and Elena's pretty sure she's going to die a very unpleasant death until her fingers sink into sand and grit and mud. The Riverbank. She aches to breath as she straightens herself out and kicks off the muddy ground, propelling herself through the water and to the surface where she breaks the water with a painful sounding heave of a gasp.

She paddles her way over to the edge of the river. Slender fingers dig into the bank, sinking deep into the mud and allowing Elena a bit of leverage to haul herself out of the water and up into the grass growing along the bank. There's a disorienting moment where in Elena tries to see if she's gotten herself injured in some way but she's still catching her breath and focusing is much too difficult at the moment. So she coughs as she curls up in the grass, water spilling from between her lips to add more water to the damp soil beneath her.

About five feet away Jake doesn't sound like he's doing much better.

Elena can't bring herself to really care that they're both in a rather vulnerable position, she's just happy they're alive and not scattered around the jungle floor in little bloody bits that Grace and Norm were going to have to take back to the base. She's woman enough to admit that it had been a close one. If they hadn't made it to the waterfall when they did it's likely the two of them would have ended up dead... Well, one of them anyway. Elena doesn't want to think about it and so she finishes catching her breath, rises to her feet, and makes her way over to where Jake is slowly pushing himself to his.

"We should get up into the trees. It'll be better shelter from most predators and - what are you doing?" Elena asks as Jake grabs her hand and drags her off into the jungle.

Marines, Elena knows, are good at surviving. But there's a difference here between surviving and being stupid. Unfortunately for Jake he's not listening to the scientist, the woman who's gone through years of training, the one who knows the fauna and animals on this planet like the back of her hand. Running off into the jungle half-cocked isn't going to get them anywhere but into trouble. She tugs at his grip, pulls her elbow back enough to put a strain on his fingers, but she doesn't have enough strength to break his hold on her. They stumble through the foliage around them as Jake has no idea where he's going and won't take a moment to listen to Elena's demands that he get his head out of his ass and listen to her so that they can come up with a suitable plan. Eventually Jake must tire out because he pulls Elena under a cluster of leaves and forces her down into a crouch while he goes to work doing... whatever it is he's doing.

Elena watches as he cuts the end of a sapling down to a sharp point before she gently places her hand over his to stop his frantic cutting.

"Jake, we need to get up into the trees." Elena breathes, careful to keep her voice low in the hopes that it will soothe Jake's obviously frazzled nerves.

His knuckles go pale as his grip on his improvised weapon tightens, a muscle flutters in his jaw, and for a moment Elena wonders if he's just going to ignore her. With a huff of displeasure Elena snatches the makeshift spear from his hands and scowls at him when he hisses in protest.

"Jake, you need to take a deep breath and think about this with a clear head." Elena says.

Something in the trees screeches and the pinpricks of sunlight managing to slip through the leaves disappear from view as branches shift and sway. Jake swears under his breath, body falling into a crouch as he stares above his head at the trees, when he decides nothing's coming for his head Jake rises and looks back at her with big, worried eyes. Elena sighs as she moves to push some of the hair that's come out of her braid out of her face. For a long moment neither of them say anything and opt to stare at each other in the near-ominous silence of the jungle around them. Jake deflates first, his shoulders falling as the tension leaves him in a rush of air past his teeth, Elena allows herself to relax a bit once she's certain he isn't going to go back to his task of making improvised weaponry.

"So what do we do?" Jake asks, probably more for Elena's benefit than his own.

"They'll probably head back to base when the sun sets so we need to find a safe place to hunker down for the night, because I have a feeling Grace is going to pull us out the moment she gets the opportunity."

And there are worse things than angry Thanator's roaming the jungle.

"So what? We just wander around?"

Elena rolls her eyes and snaps back with, "It's either that or make for the trees."

The man across from her casts a look up at the canopy above their heads and seems to pale a bit at the notion of climbing up the ancient trees for even a hope at general cover. Elena thinks that maybe if they were closer to the edge of the forest they'd have an easier time, hell, they could have gone back to the old school but that would require either of them knowing how to get there and unfortunately Elena has no clue how to get to the school or the clearing they landed in from where they're at currently. So their options are either climb the trees or trek through the jungle until they find a safe place to hide their avatars. Max is totally going to rip her a new one when they see each other again.

After several moments of discussion Jake and Elena decide to find something a little closer to the ground and take off walking in the general direction the river had been flowing. Jake had muttered water damaging the few useful tools in Elena's pack to which Elena had called him a jack ass. After that the two of them lapse into somewhat tense silence as they make their way through the jungle.

Slowly, so slowly that it's almost unnoticeable until it's too late, the sky begins to darken and there's been no hint of safe coverage for Elena and Jake to hunker down in for the night. At first, neither of them panic, not until the shadows begin to bleed into true darkness and something begins slinking through the inky-blackness behind them, around them. It's enough to put Jake on edge and enough to make Elena actually wish she'd brought some sort of weapon should she need it. There's a noise behind them and Jake and Elena whip around just in time to see a pair of eyes glint back at them in the barely-there-light of the setting sun.

They need to get into the trees.

When Elena turns to tell Jake this she finds he's already ripped the bottom part of his shirt off and has wrapped it around the pointed edge of his spear, he soaks the end in tree sap that's collected in an outgrowth of a tree near them before he falls to his knees and goes digging through his pockets.

"Jake, what are you doing?" Elena's voice is a hiss because she already knows. "We don't need a fire."

Because the fun fact about Pandora is everything has an aspect of bioluminescence to it. Elena's only had the pleasure of seeing pictures of the plants of Pandora lit up during the night hours but at least she'd known it was something that happens. Clearly no one bothered to tell Jake about this incredibly cool trick of evolution and now she's got to find a way to convince him to- "Run!"

Elena grunts as she's once again dragged through the jungle by Jake, the terrifying yipping from the shadows telling Elena that no amount of climbing or running is going to get them out of this mess. Shit, shit, shit. Elena stumbles as Jake hauls her up onto a fallen trunk that cuts over a stream in a desperate attempt to outrun their predators which ends up being a fool's hope as the viperwolves have them cornered. They are so unbelievably fucked.

"Got any ideas?" Jake demands as the pack converges, slinking closer to the light and yipping viciously.

This is honestly Elena's dream and her nightmare all at once.

"Uh, no, not really."

Jake swears and swings his torch at one of the viperwolves while Elena presses herself closer so that they're back-to-back while also keeping an eye on the masses coming at them from behind. She startles at the pained, high-pitched screech that comes from behind her but doesn't turn to look at what's going on as she's locked eyes with one of the viperwolves in front of her and is currently stuck in a stare down that she can't get out of for fear of the predator across from her pouncing. The last thing she needs is one or more of them going for her extremities or her throat.

"I don't have all goddamn night!" she hears Jake yell, "Come on! Come on!"

Elena barely has enough time to duck out of the way as the viperwolves attack. They charge as a unit, blurs of liquid shadow with blazing eyes and too many teeth, Elena tries to think of anything she can that might get them out of this situation but nothing comes to mind and then Jake is being taken to the ground, his torch ripped out of his hands and tossed aside by the Viperwolf that has him pinned to the ground. It's a terrifying thing, watching a friend stare death in the face, and for some reason Elena feels like a goddamn hero. Which she's learned from every horror movie ever is a terrible thing to feel. It usually gets a person killed.

Acting on pure adrenaline and a need to not die Elena does the first thing that comes to mind; she yells.

"Stop!"

Miraculously the viperwolf, whose teeth were inches from Jake's throat, stops short and then promptly whips around to glare are her along with the rest of the pack. It never occurred to her that they'd been focused on the main threat and had kept their eye on her as a prey animal but had prioritized the biggest threat to their hunt. Elena feels incredibly unsafe under their scrutiny but she stands tall and continues on like she would have with the little street dog she'd found living near her house... Well, no, not like the dog that had lived in the alley. He'd been frightened and distant but he'd never once been aggressive toward her so Elena had never had to speak to him in anything other than a gentle, soothing coo. These are not a dog, they are not domesticated, all they know is kill-or-be-killed and Elena's not going to be able to show weakness here or it'll get her and Jake killed.

"Aparate! Back off!" She snarls at it, them, and all she gets in response is a menacing growl to which Elena hisses. "Now!"

The viperwolf pinning Jake doesn't move but it does go incredibly still, like it understands what she's saying and is genuinely considering the threat she presents to it and it's pack mates, and clearly it's not a very big one, if any sort of threat at all. Elena's a scientist, not a marine, she doesn't know how to fight and she's never killed anything in her life. If the viperwolves decide to kill her then that's it, she and Jake are goners.

 _Thunk!_

And arrow lodges itself in the viperwolf's chest; longer than her other body's arm and made of pale wood, staining red where it meets the skin of the viperwolf, leading up to brightly colored fletching fluttering slightly in the wind as the creature falls to the ground and doesn't move again. Elena looks up just in time to see a Na'vi female come flying out of the trees like some sort of forest nymph warrior woman, she notches another arrow and fires at another viperwolf just before she lands above Jake in a crouch. Elena yelps at one of the viperwolves shoots by her, close enough that it's flank brushes against Elena's leg, to charge at the Na'vi female. There's nothing she can do but watch as the Na'vi female swings her bow down to crack it against the head of the lunging viperwolf only to be taken to the ground by another, thankfully she rolls out from under the beast and slips her knife free in time to sink the blade between the ribs of the animal.

Elena wishes she had some sort of weapon to defend herself with but all she's got is her voice and so she allows her body to pull down into a crouch, lips curling back over sharpened teeth, and lets out a low string of growls that cause a few of the viperwolves to go incredibly still before they whip around to face her. It's enough of a distraction for Jake and the Na'vi woman to find their footing and chase off the rest of the viperwolves. There's a strange sound coming from where Jake is, a sort of half-choked whimper. When Elena turns to look... well, she doesn't like what she finds.

Jake is laid out on top of one of the viperwolves, broad hands wrapped tightly around its throat as he bears down on it with his own significant body weight, and the creature thrashes a bit as it chokes to death beneath Jake's grip. Elena's stomach rolls as she watches those bright green eyes begin to dim.

"Jake, stop!" she demands as she marches closer in a half-thought-out attempt to pry him off of the viperwolf, "Let it go! It's not going to attack us now! They hunt in packs, Jake, it's alone now!"

Still a threat of course but no where near dangerous enough for Jake to resort to such a barbaric way of putting it down.

The marine twists his head to glare at her but doesn't pull his hands away from the creature's neck. Elena begins to panic a bit as there's no way she's going to be able to get Jake off of the viperwolf without putting in some serious effort and it's obvious that the poor thing isn't going to make it that long.

"Jake, _please_ let it go." She begs, eyes welling with hot tears that threaten to spill over her cheeks.

It's what truly catches Jake's attention. He lifts some of his weight off of the creature, his discomfort with the situation quite clear, before pulling his hands off its shiny throat and pushing his body weight off of it. There's a rustling behind them- probably the Na'vi female preparing to save Elena's life or Jake's- but the viperwolf ignores it in its desperate scramble to make it to the cover of the trees hidden in the shadows around them.

Once it's gone a tenseness falls over those remaining.

Turning to face the Na'vi female Elena watches as she stalks over to the torch and tosses it into the stream as Jake protests loudly before crossing over to the critically injured viperwolf Jake had managed to stab that's still struggling to survive. It's a pitiful sight; the poor thing paws at the air and tries to raise its head as the Na'vi moves closer but with no where to go and no way to flee it's forced to endure a few more moments of agony before it's put out of it's misery.

" _Forgive me, my brother_." The Na'vi female says as she touches her fingers to its head, then she's up and moving to retrieve her arrows.

"Look, um, I know you probably don't understand this. But- thanks- _thank you_. I, we, owe you." Jake says, eyes wide and bright in the blue and green light put off by the plants around them.

" _Forgive me_ ," she's praying over another slain animal, " _may your spirit run with the Great Mother_."

"We would have been screwed if you hadn't come along." Jake continues only to be ignores as the female rises and begins walking away. She must have been following them for some time. Impossible to know how long, really, but Elena would venture to guess that she'd been watching since either the school or the river. "Hey wait. Wait! Where you goin'?"

Elena watches, completely dumbfounded, as Jake takes a few half-jogged steps in the direction of the female that has begun stalking away from them. He stumbles through some plants in his attempt to follow her and Elena realizes that he's not going to stop, and so she chases after the idiot with a muttered curse and silent prayer.

"Slow down a second will you? I just want to thank you for killing those-" he places his hand on her shoulder and before Elena can call out a warning the Na'vi female is whipping around and slapping him upside the head with her bow which lays Jake out in the dirt.

It would be funny if the other female weren't so incredibly angry looking.

"Don't _thank_! You don't thank for this! This is sad! Very sad, only." The other female snarls out, her English heavy but clear.

Beautiful, Elena thinks it's beautiful.

"Ok," Jake tries to appease, "I'm sorry. Whatever I did, I'm sorry."

The Na'vi female's lips curl a bit as she points back at the dead viperwolves littered across the ground behind them. Her eyes are not directed at Elena but the driver isn't foolish enough to think she's exempt from whatever it is their reluctant savior is about to say. Hell, she'll probably end up agreeing with the other female.

"All this is your fault! They did not need to die."

Indignant, Jake offers their savior a look and snaps back, "They attacked us! How are we the bad guys here?"

She, the Na'vi woman, silences Jake by pushing the tip of her bow into his throat. Elena forces herself a step closer in preparation to intervene but stops when she's shot a look by the other female.

" _Your fault!_ You are like baby, making noise, don't know what to do. You should not come here, all of you! You only come and make problems. Only."

And it's not a lie. How many times have humans and drivers caused problems for the Na'vi, accidentally or otherwise. Elena's not stupid. She knows she's here on Pandora for selfish reasons; she wants to learn, to experience, to be part of something bigger than herself, yes, but at what cost? The Na'vi do not want them here. The RDA only wants the minerals they can harvest on Pandora. The humans back on Earth have other things to worry about than the difficulties their actions are putting on the lives of those who call Pandora home. It's not unfair of the female to say they should leave, to claim humans only cause problems, because they should and they do but they won't. And she knows that. So she lashes out with cutting words and maybe even her weapons. How else is she supposed to defend herself or her people?

"Ok, fine, you love your little forest friends," Jake snarls as he rises from the ground, "so why not let them kill my ass? Why not let them kill Elena? What's the thinking?"

The female looks away, suddenly her face conveys a reluctance and confusion that Elena understands intimately, before she turns and meets Jake's eye for the first time tonight.

"Why save you."

"Yes, why save us?"

"You have strong heart. No fear." and this time she cuts her gaze toward Elena who feels awkward at finally being acknowledged by the female in a way that isn't aggressive. "But stupid! Ignorant like a child."

Happy feeling gone.

Jake follows, again, when the female turns and walks off and only pauses long enough to motion Elena to follow after him. Like she's stupid enough to actually linger around fresh kills in the middle of the jungle. It's almost enough to cause her to feel offended at Jake's audacity. She is, after all, the one who actually went through the training for the program and while she might not have a military background she isn't so unaware that she'd just stay somewhere she might end up killed.

"If I'm so ignorant, maybe you should teach me." Jake calls.

"Sky people can not learn. You so not _See_." Their rescuer snaps back as if she's repeating something for the hundredth time before she leaps up onto an elevated tree root.

Feeling vindictive, Elena slips around Jake and takes the leap easily and pauses long enough to turn and raise a hairless brow at her non-scientist friend. He hesitates another moment before taking the leap himself, landing steadily on both feet and looking around with a wide eyed, "Whoooaaa." He runs to catch up to their savior, grabbing Elena's wrist as he passes.

"Then teach us to See."

Ahead of them the female stops which causes Jake to almost run into her.

"No one can teach you to See." is all she says before she takes off at a trot toward a large root that twists and bends over a large gorge.

Elena's thinking of something to say, something smart and philosophical, something to make the Na'vi woman at least listen to them but nothing good comes to mind as Jake trots her over the gorge.

"Hey, slow down. Look, I think we just got off on the wrong foot and-" he looks down, realizes how high up they are, swallows, and continues, "-you just have to get to know me, us. I'm Jake. Jake Sull-"

Something catches the spear he'd grabbed at some point and spins him off balance. Elena grits her teeth as she adjusts her grip, bends her knees, and pulls him away from the edge of the root with all the patience of a put-out parent. He offers her a wide grin and turns back toward their rescuer who has stepped closer to help. When she realizes that she's not needed the Na'vi female sneers.

"We need your help." Jake says and Elena glares at him before shoving him aside.

"Please."

"You should not be here."

"So take us with you!" Jake calls.

" _No_. Go back."

Movement from the corner of Elena's eye makes her pull back from Jake and the female, who have begun having some sort of strange silent argument, and moves further down the root to get a better look at the- _oh_. Breath catching in her throat Elena reaches up and allows the woodsprite closest to her to dance across the tips of her fingers. They look like dandelion seeds, but bigger, and they dance through the air like tiny ballerinas; gleaming and shining and pulsing in the air around them. One brushes her cheeks, another catches in her hair, more drift off while some linger on various parts of her body. Someone is talking behind her, Jake or their savior, but Elena is distracted by the pulsing seedlings brushing her skin.

The warmth that follows them seems familiar, feels like home, and there's a distinct call of something in her blood that makes Elena's bones quiver with wonder. The woodsprite dancing across her knuckles flutters happily as it bounces into the air and drifts closer, closer, closer until Elena is forced to tip her head back so that it can rest on the bridge of her nose between her eyes.

She remembers something from a dream: bright light, warmth, a mother's voice.

Suddenly there is a hand closing delicately around her wrist and the woodsprites- Atokirina- shoot off and away from her in a flutter of white light and pulsing warmth that leaves Elena suddenly breathless.

"You good, Fierro?" Jake asks.

"Yeah. I'm good."

 _Great, excellent, did you not feel that?_

"Come! Quickly, come!" Their savior commands as she passes Elena and Jake.

She seems agitated, Elena doesn't understand why. Well, technically she does but emotionally there's no connection between the way she feels currently and the way the Na'vi female so clearly does.

Sluggishly, Elena follows after the female. She's careful to never stray more than a few feet from either Jake or their strange new not-friend, but she allows herself to experience the jungle in ways she wouldn't have been able to if she'd stayed with Grace and Norm or hadn't gotten separated from the group with Jake. Everything is awake and alive and thrumming with life like Earth hasn't in years. It's untouched and wild and Elena marvels as she's guided through the jungle toward whatever it is their savior wants them to see.


End file.
